


To Do What's Right

by flipflop_diva, Mousek



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: BAMF Bucky Barnes, BAMF Natasha Romanov, BAMF Shuri (Marvel), BAMF Steve Rogers, Canon-Typical Violence, Fights, Gen, Mission Fic, POV Natasha Romanov, Podfic, Podfic Length: 30-45 Minutes, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Sound Effects, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Undercover, Wakandan Technology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:07:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25606336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/pseuds/flipflop_diva, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mousek/pseuds/Mousek
Summary: Steve and Natasha might be on the run, but when T'Challa calls with news that superpowered men, women and children are being taken captive, they both know they have to do everything they can to stop it. So with the help of Bucky and Shuri, they put together a plan to save them all — hopefully including themselves.Please see end notes for a list of sound effects used in this work.Constructive criticism on both fanfic writing and podfic production are welcome.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov
Comments: 9
Kudos: 35
Collections: Pod_Together 2020





	To Do What's Right

**Author's Note:**

> We have been working on this project for a couple months now and have had it written and produced for some time, long before we learned the sad news of Chadwick Boseman's death. There are a couple minor scenes in our project that feature T'Challa. We worried a little about posting this now, but we hope our work honors the character that he brought to life so beautifully on the big screen. Though if anyone needs to skip our project because of his inclusion, we completely understand. Rest in peace, King.
> 
> Audio warning for a high-pitched sound at 34:47.

  


[Direct Dropbox download link](https://www.dropbox.com/s/i4daw3epb7tnkpk/to%20do%20what%27s%20right.mp3?dl=0)

  


It took them a moment to realize the ringing phone was coming from the bag in which Steve carried his very few outfits and even fewer personal possessions.

They stared at each other, both of them running through the possibilities in their heads.

They’d been on the run for six months now, but in all that time, no one had called them. Not Tony Stark (they hadn’t really expected him), not T’Challa with good news on Bucky (Steve kept hoping for that one) or even Sam, who had left them a month ago to take care of a few things, although he had been relatively vague on what those things were (Natasha had a feeling it had something to do with making sure his sister and nieces were not in any sort of danger from his status as a fugitive, but she didn’t pry. If someone didn’t want her to know something, she wasn’t going to ask. In most cases anyway).

Now, though, the phone was incessant. And Steve wasn’t moving.

“It’s three in the morning,” Natasha said. “Answer it. It’s important.”

“Or it’s a trap.”

“Three people in the entire world have this number. It’s not going to be a trap.”

Steve looked at her with an expression that said he knew she didn’t really believe that, after everything they had been through together, but he moved toward the bag.

It was still ringing — on the fourth attempt, actually — when he answered.

\--

Two hours later, they sat cross-legged on the bed in the dowdy hotel room they had been sharing, facing each other.

The entire conversation with T’Challa was playing in Natasha’s head on repeat. The men and women — the _children_ — who had been taken. The experiments that were most likely going on. The risk they would be taking if they tried to do this.

“We will understand if you cannot help,” T’Challa had said. “We would never put you at risk needlessly.”

But they might as well have been holding a gun to her head, Natasha thought.

She stared across the bed at Steve. “We can’t say no,” she said.

“What if we get caught?”

“So what if we do?”

He met her eyes. He didn’t need to say the words for her to know what he was thinking. That he would be fine. That he was Captain America. Even if he was a vigilante, there were too many people that considered him an icon. They wouldn’t be allowed to touch him. Not much anyway. Not anything that wouldn’t heal.

But she … well, former assassins for the KGB were never going to be treated especially well, no matter who she was now.

“They could deport you, Nat,” Steve said softly. “Or sell you to the highest bidder.”

“Or kill me,” she said. She knew they were both thinking it.

“It’s too great a risk.”

“It’s worth it. They’re taking children.” She reached for his hands. “Children,” she repeated. And she knew he wasn’t going to tell her no. Just as much as she wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

“This isn’t like the Red Room, Nat,” was all he said.

She shrugged. “It might as well be.”

\--

T’Challa’s sister wasn’t what Natasha was expecting. 

“I cannot help you,” T’Challa had told them on the phone when they called him back a few hours later to tell him they would do it, that they would find and free the people who had been captured. “If anyone ever found out Wakanda was involved, it would not be good for any of us.”

“We understand,” Steve had said. “We thank you for telling us what you heard. We can take it from here.”

“I am not leaving you be,” T’Challa had said. “I have someone who can help. Steve has met her. My sister, Shuri. She can do whatever you need her to do.”

“Thank you,” Steve had said. “We appreciate it.”

Shuri, Steve had told Natasha when they had hung up with T’Challa, was like the Tony Stark of Wakanda. But smarter. But Natasha was never to tell Tony that (when they were all speaking again, that is).

Shuri, though, as far as Natasha could tell, was nothing like Tony. She answered the Skype call on the secure line she had created for all of them wearing a bright blue dress, her hair done up in buns like Princess Leia and a huge smile across her face.

“Hello, Captain,” she greeted Steve, now with an even bigger grin, if that was actually possible.

After Steve introduced her to Natasha, Shuri clapped her hands together. “I have a surprise for you,” she said.

“Help freeing the superpowered people that have been taken hostage?” Natasha asked.

Shuri laughed. “That is not a surprise. That is a given.” 

(“Okay,” Natasha whispered to Steve out of the corner of her mouth. “Maybe she is a little like Tony.” He grinned at her.)

“I’ll be right back!” Shuri told them. 

She got up and disappeared off camera. Natasha could see what looked like a very big, very high-tech lab behind where she had been sitting. She could make out an array of computers and screens and holographic tables and what looked like mannequins wearing different pieces of costumes. Now that none of them were talking, Natasha could hear the sounds of machines whirring in the background.

Shuri popped back into view.

“Are you ready?” she said, but before waiting for them to answer, she disappeared out of view of the camera once more. A second later someone else’s body appeared on the screen. A man, dressed in silk robes.

And then he sat.

“Bucky!” cried out Steve, and Natasha turned to look at him, watching as his eyes widened at the sight of his best friend.

“Yup, it’s me,” Bucky said. He was grinning at them. 

“You’re okay?” Steve asked.

“I’m okay,” he said. He pointed to his head. “No more triggers.”

“That’s great, Buck.”

“Shuri says you could use my help.”

Steve was grinning like he’d just been given the biggest surprise of his life. “We can,” he said.

Natasha stood up. 

“I’ll give you boys some time to catch up,” she said, more to Steve than to Bucky. “I’ll be back in a few.”

“Nat, wait!” Steve called, but she was already out the door.

\--

They had ended up in a small village in the north of Ireland. Natasha had seen a small café when they arrived two days ago. She headed there to get her and Steve some sandwiches and coffee.

She was happy for Steve. She knew how much Bucky meant to him and how much he had been worrying about whether T’Challa could help him.

Her fingers drifted up to rub aimlessly at a spot just below her left shoulder. Helen Cho had done a great job healing most of the damage from the bullet, leaving just a small scar that barely anyone would notice. But it didn’t escape Natasha that the last few times she had seen Bucky, he had been putting bullets into her or trying to choke her. It was hard to share Steve’s excitement to work with him now.

She would of course. Because saving people — saving _children_ — who were going missing was more important than anything. She just needed a little time to herself to deal with it.

Steve opened the door for her before she even had time to swipe her hotel key card through the lock. His eyes look worried when she walked in. She noticed the laptop they had been using was turned off.

She eyed him carefully as she held out the roast beef sandwich and coffee (one cream, one sugar) she had gotten him.

“We don’t have to do this,” Steve told her seriously. He took the food from her. “Thank you.”

“We do have to do this.”

“We don’t have to have his help.”

So he knew she was upset. She hadn’t wanted that. “We need all the help we can get,” she said.

“I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”

“I’m not uncomfortable.”

“Nat …”

“I’m fine.” She met his eyes, waited until he was looking at her so he could see she meant it.

“I’m fine,” she repeated. “Really.”

“Okay,” he said, in a way that told her he did not actually believe her but he wasn’t going to push it. He pointed to the laptop. “They said they’re ready to start when we are.”

Natasha nodded, taking a quick breath. “Then let’s call them back.”

\--

The first problem to solve was the where this was all happening.

Shuri pulled up a holographic map of the world, letting it hang in the air over a table in her lab. As they watched, she touched different spots around the globe.

“These are the last known locations of those we can confirm went missing,” she told them.

Natasha stared at the different red dots on the map. At least thirty of them. She felt her stomach twist. And those were only the ones they knew about. How many more were there?

“They’re all around the world,” she said. “That doesn’t help us at all. They —whoever is doing this — probably have operatives in every country.”

“They aren’t keeping them in separate locations, though,” Steve said. “There has to be a central place.”

Shuri thought, a finger pressed to her lips as she studied the map. Then her face brightened. “Perhaps I can use their powers to trace them,” she said.

“That’s possible?” Natasha asked, a little warily.

“I believe so,” Shuri said. “From what our sources told us, the taken children don’t have powers like they have powers.” Shuri indicated Bucky and Steve. “They aren’t super strong or super fast. They can manipulate the environment. Turn people to ice. Turn solid objects into liquid. Levitate. Mind control.”

Natasha shuddered as she spoke. It was one thing for adults to have powers, but young children born with gifts they couldn’t control or understand?

Shuri was still talking. “Those type of powers should leave a signature.”

“Unless whoever took these people are preventing their powers,” Steve said. Natasha knew he was thinking of Wanda in the Raft, the shock collar around her neck.

“From what we know, they are studying them,” Shuri said. “They want to harness their powers. They cannot stop them if they wish to do that.”

“Okay,” Steve said. “But how will you know what to look for?”

“Oh, that is easy, Captain.” Shuri smiled. “We know where they were taken. I just have to track radar maps back to that point in time.”

Steve looked confused, but Natasha understood where Shuri was going with this. She knew all too well.

“Scared children would have used their powers when they were being taken,” Natasha said. “If Shuri can find that moment …”

“I can find the signature,” Shuri cut in. “And look for it happening now.”

“How long will that take?” Steve asked.

“I do not know. A few hours?” Shuri said. “I shall start on it right away.”

“Okay, while you do that.” Steve turned to Natasha. “We can’t very well sneak in anywhere looking like Captain America and Black Widow.”

“Don’t worry, Steve,” Natasha told him. “I have a plan for that.”

\--

The device could fit in the palm of her hand. She pulled it out of her duffel bag and held it out to Steve. He stared at it blankly.

“That’s going to help us?”

She smiled. “Remember how I passed for Councilwoman Hawley?”

He kept looking at the device. “And you just happened to have this with you?”

“I’m always prepared, Steve. You know that.” She set it down on the bed beside her. “We just need to figure out who to pass as that will cause the least suspicion.”

“You think it’s safe to use that for the entire mission?”

“No. I think there’s something else we need to do for that.”

\--

Natasha stood in the tiny bathroom, staring at herself in the mirror. The towel on her head covered up the hair she had left. She brushed the stray red strands off the edge of the sink and dropped them into the bin along with the rest of the ones she had chopped off.

She changed her look all the time. She wasn’t sure why this one felt any different.

She yanked the towel off her head, letting newly blonde curls fall out. 

She stared at herself. It had been a long time since she didn’t have red hair. Before SHIELD. She lifted a hand, almost unconsciously, fingering one of the damp pieces sticking to her cheek.

“It’s not forever,” she whispered to herself in the mirror, but she wasn’t sure she believed that. But blonde hair was better than jail or death or being sent back to people who would torture her until she couldn’t bear it anymore.

Steve’s eyes shot up when she opened the door from the bathroom. She watched him take in her new look, and then he forced himself to smile.

“It looks good.”

“It's bland. But it’s better to blend in.”

“I don’t think you could ever just blend in,” Steve told her.

She let herself smile at that, a real smile. “Back at you, Soldier,” she said. “Although we better try if we want to save these people and come out on the other side.”

\--

Shuri had news for them late that night. Natasha and Steve had been sitting together on the bed, watching some old Irish movie play on the television, trying not to stare at the clock. Natasha had begun to think they weren’t going to hear anything, and her eyes were starting to drift closed as she leaned her head on Steve’s shoulder.

A loud ringing from the laptop on the bed by their feet startled her awake.

“I found them!” Shuri said when they answered the Skype call, not even waiting for a hello.

“Where?” Natasha asked, immediately back in work mode.

“Okay, you might not like this,” Shuri said. Behind her, Natasha could see Bucky walk into the frame. He took a seat to Shuri’s right. “They’re keeping them in what looks like an abandoned building in upstate New York.”

“New York?” Steve echoed. “We have to go back?”

The dread in his voice seemed to wash over Natasha. Going back to the United States was so much riskier than going anywhere else. Everyone there knew who they were, and if they were spotted …

She shook her head, to try and dispel the negative thoughts. They didn’t have a choice, she reminded herself.

“Where in New York?” she asked Shuri.

Shuri punched something on her keyboard. “Sending you a map to your phone.”

Natasha grabbed the burner phone as it beeped. She pulled the map Shuri had sent up on the screen, zooming in to get a clearer view. Recognition dawned as she stared it.

“I know that place,” she said. “It’s not an abandoned warehouse.”

“Are you sure?” Shuri said. “I was able to pull up video from surveillance satellites.”

Natasha nodded. “It’s an abandoned warehouse above ground, yes,” she said. “But it’s an old SHIELD base underneath.”

“In use?” Bucky asked.

Natasha smiled wryly. “Barely any SHIELD bases are in use. By the good guys anyway.”

“So this is Hydra,” Steve said. “Or people who worked closely with them.”

“Seems like,” Natasha answered.

“I’m not sure if that makes this better or worse,” Steve said.

“I’ve been there,” Natasha said. “That’s better. But it’s a SHIELD facility with all the security that entails.”

“And that’s worse,” Bucky said.

“Yeah.”

“That just means we have to plan better,” Shuri said. She typed something into her laptop. “Now, tell me everything you know about this place.”

\--

It took them three days to get everything ready. But when they were finished, they had as much of a solid plan as they possibly could get from thousands of miles away.

“I think we are ready,” Shuri said. They watched as she hit a few keys on her side of the screen. “I am sending you a map. Get there by seven o’clock. I’ll do the rest.”

Next to Steve and Natasha, the phone they had been using beeped with a text from Shuri.

“You will do great,” Shuri said.

“Hopefully,” Steve said. “Or you’re going to be fishing us out of some other underwater prison.”

Shuri laughed. Bucky, behind her, looked nervous.

“Talk to you tomorrow,” Shuri said, and the line disconnected.

Steve turned to Natasha. “Last chance to back out.”

“You know I’m not backing out. Do you want to back out?”

“I go where you go,” he said, then he gestured to the bed. “Come on. Let’s get some sleep. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day.”

\--

They were dressed and out of the hotel, their duffel bags with the phone and the photostasis veil and their clothes swung over their shoulders, long before the sun had come up. They dressed in jeans and old sweatshirts, the hoods up over their heads. With Steve’s newly grown beard and Natasha’s short blonde hair, they weren’t easily recognized, even if people were looking for them, which they wouldn’t be. They monitored the news every day, but there hadn’t been mentions of either of them in over a month.

The spot on the map where Shuri wanted them to get to was far away from any city. They boarded a bus, then another one and then a third to get them to a small town that had a junk yard where abandoned cars were often towed.

“Captain America stealing a car again,” Natasha grinned as Steve got the vehicle started without trouble.

He glared at her. “We’re leaving a note,” he huffed.

It took them another hour to make it to the spot on the road where they were to turn off on to a dirt path.

“Are you sure this is right?” Steve asked Natasha as they bounced along, weaving in and out of trees, no person or landmark in sight.

“Yes,” she said.

A few minutes later they arrived at the edge of a clearing, one more than big enough to land a plane.

“I think we’re here,” Natasha said. She glanced at the clock in the car, which read 6:59. “And right on time.”

As if on cue, a soft roar filled the clearing, bright lights shone, and then Steve and Natasha watched as a small plane dropped into the middle of the clearing.

They got out of the car (Steve already leaving his note of apology and a few stacks of bills to pay for it) just as the door to the plane opened.

Bucky grinned down at them, also dressed casually in jeans and a long-sleeve shirt. (Shuri had stayed in Wakanda. She could monitor the situation better from there, she had told them the night before.)

Steve’s face lit up, and Natasha watched as the two friends embraced. And then kept embracing.

“Okay,” she finally said. “We really don’t have all day.”

They broke apart, Steve looking sheepish. Bucky stuck his hand out toward her. “We’ve never had a proper introduction,” he said. “I’m Bucky.”

Natasha bit back her response about his trying to kill her multiple times. She also didn’t reach for his hand, not until Steve narrowed his eyes at her.

“Natasha,” she said, letting him shake her hand but pulling it back quickly. “Let’s go. We have a mission to complete.”

She let Bucky and Steve sit together on one side of the plane so they could catch up. She sat on the other, popping in earphones and going over all the notes and schematics on the tablet Bucky handed her when they boarded. (“It’s from Shuri,” he had said.) They couldn’t mess this up. Steve had been right that if they got caught, it would be worse for her. And Bucky. She couldn’t let that happen.

\--

It was nearing nine in the morning in New York when the Wakandan jet landed in a deserted stretch of land about ten miles away from where they believed the men, women and children were being held captive.

They had seen on their holographic map, courtesy of Shuri, that there was a stretch of houses about three miles out from their landing spot.

Steve and Natasha left Bucky by the jet to walk to town. 

“Our car broke down and our phone died and we don’t have any way to call for help,” Natasha sobbed to the couple who answered the door at the first house they stopped at. Steve kept an arm around her shoulders and apologized to the couple for his wife being so emotional.

“She’s pregnant,” he whispered to the pair as Natasha sobbed.

The couple took pity on them and agreed to drive them to the closest city so they could rent a new car. The woman even plied them with orange juice and toast and eggs before they did so, telling Natasha she needed to eat for the baby.

Steve and Natasha thanked the couple profusely when they dropped them off, Steve offering to pay them but they insisted it was fine.

Natasha sniffled as she hugged them both, so grateful for their help.

“I don’t suppose you are familiar with an old warehouse around here? The company that ran it dealt in technology. My mom worked there years ago, and we wanted to go see it and get a picture for her — she met my late father when she was working there — but my mom wasn’t sure if it was in use or not. …”

“Oh, yes, dear, we know the one you’re talking about,” the woman said. “It’s been long abandoned, though, and it doesn’t look like much.”

“Be careful if you go,” the man warned them. “You mightn’t want to venture too close. There’s a lot of dangerous people that like to hide out there. No police or anything to kick them out.”

“Dangerous people?” Natasha asked, eyes widening innocently.

“Probably dealing drugs,” the woman said. “Just stay in the car, dear, and see it from the road. You’ll be fine.”

Steve and Natasha thanked them again and waved as they took back off. Then Steve — James Donaldson — went in to rent them a car, chatting it up with the salesman about how they were in town for a few days to visit relatives.

Steve drove them back to where Bucky was waiting for them as Natasha checked the blueprint Shuri had sent them of the warehouse. Using schematics she had found buried deep in classified SHIELD files (courtesy of Nick Fury, who agreed to help them) and what Natasha remembered, they had determined the SHIELD facility extended five floors underground. The captured people were most likely being housed in a large room on the third floor down, on the south side of the facility. It had been designed to hold the most ruthless of prisoners.

“Are you sure about that?” Steve had asked back when they were going over the floorplan of the place.

“Yes,” Natasha had said.

“The place is gigantic though. You can be that sure?”

She had nodded again. “It’s where they kept me.” At Steve’s look of horror, she had shrugged. “When I defected from the KGB. I wasn’t what you would call trustworthy.”

He hadn’t asked her anymore questions, but she knew it had bothered him. But to her, it had been a long time ago. Almost a lifetime, it felt like.

Bucky was waiting for them with bags stuffed full of weapons and tech and a spread of food he had apparently brought with him, courtesy of T’Challa and the Wakandan palace chefs. The plane had been cloaked so no one could see it.

Bucky checked his watch after Steve parked the car under a tangle of low branches, hidden far enough into the trees that no one who might come by would happen to see it.

“We’ve got about eight hours till nightfall,” Bucky said. “Plenty of time.”

\--

They had decided it would be safest to break in once night fell. They didn’t want to take a chance with any locals seeing them. From what the couple had told them, they determined the place was patrolled above ground during shifts every day. 

After lunch, Bucky and Steve took the car and headed out. They were going to conduct some routine surveillance, figure out how many guards were above ground and if they could get any indication of the amount of people below ground. 

They also had the photostatic veil device with them. The plan was to scan three of the guards — Shuri had given Bucky a few syringes full of a drug that could stun people long enough for them to get the scans and get out before they recognized what happened — two males and one female. Natasha and Bucky would be going in that night to get the men, women and children, Steve would stand guard above ground in case of any unexpected visitors, and Shuri, remotely from Wakanda, would get them through all the security they were going to encounter.

Natasha used the time they were gone to go over the plans again with Shuri and to make sure everything was in order. 

Bucky and Steve returned four hours later with bags of greasy food and grim, but pleased, expressions.

They passed out burgers and fries and milkshakes while they told Natasha what they discovered.

“Looks like four guards per shift above ground,” Steve said. “We didn’t see anyone else coming and going, but heat signatures underground showed about ten people in addition to the group of captured people.”

“You were right about which room they are all being kept in,” Bucky told her. “The heat signatures confirmed it.”

“I guess it’s good some things never change,” Natasha said around a bite of her cheeseburger. It wasn’t the best meal she’d ever had, but it wasn’t bad.

Steve looked out the window of the plane. The sun was still high in the sky. “Anyone want to play some cards while we wait?”

Bucky grinned. Natasha laughed. “Why not?” she said.

\--

By nine o’clock that night, the three of them were creeping through the tall weeds surrounding the warehouse. They had parked the car about a mile away, off the road underneath some tall, overgrown trees. If anyone got a close look at them, they would see the faces of three of the guards from the afternoon shift. They had changed into khaki pants and jackets, found in the bags of clothes Shuri had packed for them just in case they needed them. It wasn’t a perfect match, but it was hopefully close enough that no one would question them until it was too late.

About a hundred feet out, they all stopped and look at each other.

“We got this,” Steve said. “In and out.”

“In and out,” Bucky and Natasha repeated. They both embraced Steve, Bucky first and then Natasha, Natasha kissing him lightly on the cheek, before Steve headed off to the other side of the building.

She looked at Bucky. “Ready?” 

He nodded. “I’ve got your back.”

“I hope so,” she muttered under her breath, and then they were off.

\--

The guards above ground had a cycle. Three outside and one inside, shifting off and on. Bucky and Natasha waited until the inside guard swapped positions with another one, and then Bucky aimed his stun gun.

A second later the guard was unconscious on the floor. Bucky moved him to a far, dark corner while Natasha located the small security panel built into the wall.

She slipped on one of the pairs of goggles Bucky had brought with him, the ones that gave Shuri a direct line of sight to what she was seeing. She lifted her comm, fastened around her wrist, to her mouth.

“You seeing this?” she asked.

“Give me thirty seconds,” Shuri said. Natasha watched as little red lights appeared all over the security panel. At above twenty-five seconds, a green light flashed and the noise of a door unlocking echoed through the room.

Natasha saw the wood in the wall beside her move just slightly. She put her hand up to it and felt around until she found a latch. With a flick of her fingers, the door slid open.

“Bucky,” she called. 

“Right here,” he said from behind her, and they ducked inside.

They were at the top of a rickety staircase. The only light came from a single bare bulb just above their heads.

“Don’t SHIELD facilities have elevators?” Bucky asked Natasha.

“Yes,” she said. “But it’s probably a back entrance we don’t have time to find.”

“I thought you’d been here before?”

“It was in operation back then,” Natasha said. “Besides, I wasn’t exactly conscious when they brought me in.”

Bucky looked like he wanted to say more, but instead he just nodded. “Badass ladies first,” he said, and Natasha rolled her eyes at him. But she headed down the stairs, Bucky behind her.

“Okay,” Shuri said into their ears as they hit the third floor down. “Don’t touch anything. If you open that door, the lights are going to flash on and everyone is going to be alerted. Give me a few minutes.”

Natasha and Bucky waited outside the door leading to the third floor. Natasha pressed her ear up against it, but all was quiet. She could hear the sounds of keystrokes through the comm. Then came Shuri’s voice.

“All set,” she said.

Natasha pushed opened the door. The hallway was pitch black.

“One second,” Shuri said, and then suddenly the floor was bathed in green light. Shuri had turned the night vision on in their goggles. “Heat signatures say there are six people on this floor. Two in about twenty feet, two about fifty feet down from that and two more outside the door. As soon as you take one down, they are all going to know.”

Bucky and Natasha looked at each other and nodded.

She let Bucky go in front of her, tiptoeing down the hall in his wake. A foot away from the two guards, Bucky stopped, knelt, and took aim.

The soft whizzing sound of a tranquilizer dart filled the air, followed by the soft pop of it hitting its target. A moment later came a crash as the guard hit the ground.

Natasha took off, running and diving and leaping over guards. Behind her, she could hear Bucky shooting and punching. The guards were shouting, pulling out guns. She dove through the last one’s legs, barely escaping as his fingers grabbed for her leg. 

“Guys,” she heard Steve say through her comm. “We’re about to have company.”

“Take care of as many as you can, Steve,” she said.

“You know I will.”

The door at the end of the hall — the same door to the same room Natasha had once been held in as Coulson and Fury and other SHIELD higher-ups debated whether she should be killed or given a chance — was secured with the same type of device that secured the door upstairs in the empty warehouse.

“This one is slightly more complicated,” Shuri said. “I need a minute.”

“Hurry,” Natasha said.

She kept her eyes on the security panel so Shuri could do what she needed. In the distance, she could just make out the sounds of footsteps. They were coming, and reinforcements had probably been called. They needed to get everyone out before they got there.

Finally, after what felt like an interminable wait, the panel flashed green, and Natasha stepped inside, reaching up to deactivate her photostasis veil. 

“Lights, Shuri,” Natasha said, and a moment later panels of fluorescent lighting switched on. Natasha used her hand to shield against the sudden glare as she heard cries and whimpers around her.

When she put her hand down, she looked around her in horror. Women, men, children, all chained to walls, most with blood dripping from wounds, their expressions like that of wounded animals.

“I’m not here to hurt you,” she said loudly, over the sound of their cries. “I’m here to help you.”

She wasn’t sure they believed her — why would they? — and then the voice of what must have been a little girl spoke up. “You’re Black Widow!”

It wasn’t often that Natasha liked being recognized — she had grown up too much in the shadows to be comfortable with people knowing who she was — but this time she smiled. “I am,” she said.

“Nat!” Steve was in her ear. “They’re heading your way. Hurry!”

She raced to the person nearest her, a man who looked to be in his twenties. 

“Shield your eyes,” she commanded, as she took a gun out of her waistband. She aimed it carefully at where the chain met the wall and pulled the trigger.

Screams filled the room but the man’s arms dropped to his side, free.

“Help me get the rest!” she said.

It took way too long, even with the freed people helping the ones who were not. She could hear footsteps beginning to pound, could hear the sounds of fighting through her comm, could hear Shuri giving directions to Steve and Bucky about how to stop some of the guards.

There were five children left to free when she heard the first set of footsteps enter the room. She whirled around, gun pointed and shot. The guy dropped to the ground. People screamed.

She looked at the ones who had been freed. 

“Run!” she told them. “Down the hall. At the end, on the right, there’s a staircase. Go up three flights. Captain America — you know who he is? — he’ll be up there to help you. Go! Go now!”

She turned back to the children who were left. She pointed her gun at one of the chains and fired. Behind her, she could hear everyone fleeing to the door. Somewhere in the distance she could hear Bucky yelling directions.

She kept going. Only three to go. 

Footsteps sounded directly behind her. She swung her arm back, catching a guard in the face with her elbow. He stumbled backward. She freed the next child and whirled around, kicking the same guy in the stomach. He went down. She aimed and fired.

She freed the next child. Only one left.

But there were too many footsteps. She wasn’t sure where they had all come from, where Bucky and Steve were, where the people she had saved had gone.

She looked at the one child left, a little girl with wide eyes and hair that was almost the same color as hers before she dyed it blonde. She aimed her gun at the chain even as she knew the men were gaining on her.

She fired. The child’s hands dropped. Natasha dove forward, covering the little girl with her own body as they fell to the ground together.

She held the child in her arms, feeling her shake beneath her. She could hear shouting and screaming and footsteps.

And then something struck her in the back of the head. Pain flared. And then the world disappeared.

\--

Natasha’s opened her eyes to see two supersoldiers staring down at her in concern.

“The kids!” she gasped. “The men, the women …”

Steve’s hand was on hers. He squeezed it. “They’re all safe, Nat.”

“And so are we,” Bucky said.

She stared at them. “How?”

“You got them out,” Steve told her. “Bucky and I and a few of the men and women …”

“Who have some very cool powers,” Bucky interrupted. 

“Handled most of the guards. And then we had some help with the rest.”

“Help?” Natasha repeated.

“Seems Fury is in touch with some SHIELD agents after all,” Steve said with a smile. 

Natasha couldn’t help but smile back. “Of course he is,” she said. “There will always be a SHIELD.”

Bucky pointed to her wrist. She looked down to see her comm still on.

“Shuri wants to make sure you’re okay,” he said. “You better call her. She says not to keep her waiting.”

\--

The plane dropped Steve and Natasha off in a remote area of Italy. A car with the keys inside, courtesy of Shuri’s handiwork, was waiting for them.

“You two be safe,” Bucky told them seriously.

“I wish you could come with us,” Steve said. “But I know it’s safer for you in Wakanda.”

“It’s not forever,” Bucky said. “At least I don’t think so.”

“It’s not,” Natasha said. She and Steve had talked about it. How one day the Avengers would be needed again. About how they would be ready. The mission they had just finished only reminded her how true that was.

She watched Steve hug his best friend.

“We’ll always have Skype,” Bucky said. They pulled apart. Bucky turned to Natasha.

“Thanks for having my back,” she said.

“Thanks for not holding my past against me,” he said. “I know what I’ve done to you. And you have every right to hate me.”

She shrugged. “I know what it’s like not to have choices,” she said. “And when you did, you chose to help us save a lot of innocent people.”

“You be safe, too, Buck,” Steve said.

“You know I will.”

Steve and Natasha waited for the plane to take off, waving goodbye even as it passed over trees and disappeared from the horizon.

Steve turned to her, offering her his hand. “Ready for whatever comes next?”

She smiled and took his hand. “Lead the way, Soldier.”

**Author's Note:**

> All sound effects are licensed for free use. Some modifications were made. They can be found at the following links: 
> 
> Smashing head: freesound.org/people/ootlivan/sounds/184992/  
> ear ringing: freesound.org/people/soundsofawesome/sounds/353361/  
> plane: freesound.org/people/kgunessee/sounds/324313/  
> gun: freesound.org/people/JarAxe/sounds/205969/  
> hit the ground: freesound.org/people/pfranzen/sounds/326351/ and freesound.org/people/Kneeling/sounds/502553/  
> cell phone: freesound.org/people/MrAuralization/sounds/256159/  
> computer noises: freesound.org/people/pj2105/sounds/426811/  
> door: freesound.org/people/stiffman/sounds/381964/  
> towel: freesound.org/people/JonnyRuss01/sounds/478192/  
> laptop ringing: freesound.org/people/fspera/sounds/528111/  
> car: freesound.org/people/GiocoSound/sounds/401558/  
> egg: freesound.org/people/JaimeLopes/sounds/516891/  
> OJ: freesound.org/people/ericlichtenberg/sounds/432349/  
> toast: freesound.org/people/spanrucker/sounds/272231/  
> crickets: freesound.org/people/Dashman71/sounds/477863/  
> walking in grass: freesound.org/people/marco_luzi/sounds/403311/  
> Bucky’s gun: freesound.org/people/ramonmineiro/sounds/531973/  
> lock: freesound.org/people/Pixanaut/sounds/238978/  
> door sliding: freesound.org/people/musicandsoundyay/sounds/452755/  
> keyboard: freesound.org/people/rui_aires/sounds/417548/  
> punches: freesound.org/people/YleArkisto/sounds/412010/  
> footsteps: freesound.org/people/Caitlin_100/sounds/365617/ and freesound.org/people/SpliceSound/sounds/369834/  
> dive to ground: freesound.org/people/DBKEEBLER/sounds/403677/  
> guards shouting: freesound.org/people/craigsmith/sounds/480802/  
> Captured people: freesound.org/people/aarrnnoo/sounds/520369/ freesound.org/people/AmeAngelofSin/sounds/326893/ freesound.org/people/AmeAngelofSin/sounds/394603/ and freesound.org/people/AmeAngelofSin/sounds/326895/  
> Screams: freesound.org/people/craigsmith/sounds/479891/  
> people running: freesound.org/people/HerbertBoland/sounds/46078/  
> getting elbowed/kicked: freesound.org/people/RICHERlandTV/sounds/232358/  
> stumble: freesound.org/people/rabban625/sounds/436477/  
> “go go go”: freesound.org/people/theuncertainman/sounds/402643/


End file.
